Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief
Passing (Nella Larsen Edition)“Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief” is a popular children’s nursery rhyme recalled by Irene Redfield as a crowd passes. Its brisk catalogue gives her a familiar pattern for a scene that emphasizes the variety of the people moving by, and she recites it to Hugh Wentworth, who has just taken a seat beside her.
Appearance in the Scene
The rhyme comes to Irene as she watches young and old men, white and Black men, women of different ages and appearances, and people of varied builds move past. Rather than describing any one person at length, the passage assembles contrasts in quick succession; the nursery rhyme offers a similarly compressed catalogue. Irene turns to Hugh Wentworth and recites its lines: “Rich man, poor man, Beggar man, thief, Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief.”
Form and Significance
The rhyme’s sequence of social roles and types echoes the scene’s rapid movement from one kind of passerby to another. Its familiar, rhythmic form makes the crowd legible as a succession of differences without pausing to tell individual stories. In this moment, Irene’s recollection links the observation of a varied public to the concise classifications of a children’s verse.
